A .psd file that is getting error message

SilasSpencer · Feb 15, 2016

I have a .psd file that is getting this error message "Could not complete your request because it is not a valid Photoshop document."
This is the first time this has happened on my Ps, CS6...and I've looked elsewhere to get some help.

And I was just working on this file a while ago, so I'm not sure what went wrong.
It is located on one of my USB Flash Drives, and I have heard that certain USBs tend to cause these things....yet this is the first its happened

bratkinson · Feb 15, 2016

I hate to sound harsh, but, in my opinion, you violated one of the first rules of digital editing.... Make a backup FIRST, and backup SECOND! THEN you edit what's on your hard drive (or SSD)! The FIRST THING I do after finishing a shoot...whether it's pictures for Ebay or a once in a lifetime event or even vacation...make at least TWO (2) additional copies! The first goes on my SSD for editing, the second to HD. The original memory card images are not erased (effectively becoming a backup) until I am done with everything and have 3 'finished' copies, one of those being offsite. And all work in progress??? I have at least one more copy on a USB thumb drive in my pocket in case my house burns down.

But, to get to your problem. Since your image(s) are on a USB flash drive, under what conditions did you remove it from your computer? Since USB drives were invented, they have ALWAYS REQUIRED being 'safely removed' using the little icon on the right side of the Windows taskbar at the bottom of your screen. Apple users? I have no idea. The reason you likely ran into trouble is you didn't 'safely remove' the USB flash drive. Whether it's Windows or any other operating system, all input/output (I/O) is performed in 'blocks' of data. These blocks are moved in and out in nanoseconds. And, when there's a lot of data to be input or output, the CPU has no choice but to wait for the device to signal 'done' before it can go on its merry way. But applications like Photoshop and many others, don't have to 'wait' for the data output 'task' to complete. Unless the application (or another concurrently running application or thread) has to access that drive again for either more output or input, the optimization features of the internal I/O chipset won't even BOTHER to write that last block or two or three until it is forced to do so! So, since a single image may be hundreds of blocks of data, the last few won't be written out until the USB device is 'safely removed' by clicking the icon and then clicking 'eject'. That forces the last few blocks of data to be written out =AND= it updates the file directory on the drive with the location of the last block of data in that file. Perhaps 4 out of 5 times if you simply pull the USB drive out there won't be any problems. The same thing happens when you do a 'normal' shutdown of your computer. All the data gets written out as part of the shutdown sequence. Note, too, that either a power failure and in some cases holding in the power button to force a shutdown may also cause data corruption for the same reason.

Bottom line, if you don't have a backup of your work, even one before you did a bunch of editing, you are out of luck! The image is toast!